Felix Salmon cautions: Buying internet companies is very, very hard: even if they are set to be very successful on their own, that’s no reason to believe that they will have similar success in-house. Google bought Foursquare back in 2005, when it was called Dodgeball, but then closed it down; only when its founders left … Continue reading What If Blockbuster Had Bought Netflix?
by Chris Bodenner James Ledbetter chronicles the company's enduring success: What is it about Netflix that causes critics to misread it so badly? Call it the innovator's paradox: Netflix forged an identity by building a simple business—DVD delivery by mail—that had never been done before. The very fact that this DVD-by-mail idea connected so deeply … Continue reading Nothin’ But Netflix
A fantastic web feature from the NYT. Gawker sums up one finding: Netflix: Manhattan Mostly Occupied by Gays and Self-Loathing Alcoholics Like they're mutually exclusive?
A new venture: Here’s how it works: Readers order books online and receive them through the mail. They can choose among plans that would allow them to receive from three to 11 books at a time. These books can be kept for as long as the reader likes with no late fees. I don’t see … Continue reading Netflix For Books
A reader recommends "Beyond Rangoon," a John Boorman movie about the original 1962 coup failed 1988 uprising in Burma.
A friend of mine who has an advanced degree in camp got me to sit down the other night and watch the newly released DVD of the old Normal Lear classic 1970s sit-com-soap, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman." I predict a big come-back. There’s no laugh-track; the comedy is of the Gervais-Cohen squirm variety; and the … Continue reading Adventures in Netflix
Heh.
That’s what Amy Sullivan calls The Fall: The show, which stars Gillian Anderson in her first major television role since The X-Files went off the air in 2002, came under heavy criticism when the first season aired in 2013 for complaints that it glamorized violence against women. Serial killer Paul Spector (Fifty Shades of Grey’s Jamie Dornan) … Continue reading “The Most Feminist Show On Television”
Last weekend we plumbed it, with a particular focus on Friends. Now that the show can be streamed on Netflix, Ruth Graham has been re-watching it – and finding that of all the characters, Chandler is “the most agonizingly obsolete,” not least when it comes to his alleged homophobia: Chandler, identified in Season 1 as having a “quality” of … Continue reading The Meaning Of ’90s Sitcoms, Ctd
Unbelievable? How could Mary Landrieu lose? I thought she had the keg stand frat boy bloc locked up. #LASen pic.twitter.com/wtfypwQ6z2 — Srcih Lelrim (@ChrisAMillerNow) December 7, 2014 There’s been a growing chorus of bloggers arguing that an approach to lowering sexual assault on campus shouldn’t just target frats, but also empower sororities – to throw their own parties. Anna … Continue reading Keg Stands Manned By Women?
